Fragglerocker's Roar Profile

I’ve grown up on league and union, and I’ve grown to love AFL as well as NFL, NHL and other sports. But I’ve tried as hard as I can to get into soccer. I remember during the 1998 World Cup going to a pub to watch a game. Big crowd, good atmosphere, even had a team scarf on. But it just never worked. Mainly because of the cowardice and poor sportsmanship that seemed to be a core element of the game.

I’m not trying to make this a dig against soccer by a supporter of a rival code. I’m trying to present my reasons for not getting behind soccer to those who love the game in the genuine hope that maybe that those who do love their game can fix it. I’d love to see soccer thrive in Australia alongside other codes and I love to see the socceroos win. It’s just that from my point of view, many supporters of rival codes find the continuous acts of poor sportsmanship, dishonour and strait-out cowardice a hard thing to overcome. Mothers like their kids to play soccer because they don’t want their precious darlings hurt playing other sports – but many fathers don’t want their sons playing soccer because it teaches them the wrong lessons and encourages them to emulate the worst of human character traits. Rugby players play hard and they try to get away with what they can from the referee, but they never stand around the referee complaining and pushing him around to try and reverse his decisions (such as the Brasilian team during a game against Australia a few years ago when an Australian was tackled around the throat to prevent him from scoring). Also rugby players have a tradition of inviting their visiting opposition players to the home team’s local pub or clubhouse after almost every game.

I remember being in Cardiff during the worst soccer violence seen in europe for three years between Leeds and Cardiff City fans, with the teargas in the streets. A few days later I went to a Wallabies game in the same city and after the game (Wales lost) I went to a nearby pub dressed in Wallabies gear. The pub was packed with Welsh supporters – fanatics in a sea of red jerseys and dragon face-paint. If it was a soccer game I’d be in physical danger, as it was a rugby game I didn’t have to pay for a drink all night. I’ve been to England v Australia games where English supporters have gotten me a ticket and invited me to pre and post game parties, and I’ve been shown courtesy and hospitality by opposition supporters everywhere I’ve gone. Can any soccer supporter say the same?

Most soccer games are decided by penalty goals. If a video review shows a player taking a dive then (considering the importance a single dive can make to a game’s outcome) a more just penalty would be to go ahead and have the penalty shot – just make it at the opposite goal square. To not have an automatic video review of infringements inside the penalty box is a problem. To have Christiano and Trinidad playing next week instead of sitting out suspensions is a tragedy. To see Melbourne and Adelaide supporters still proudly wearing team jerseys emblazoned with the names of players even after those players have shown themselves to be gutless, manipulative cheaters without even a shred of honour or integrity – that’s a disgrace.

Why diving must be stamped out of the A–League

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As a union supporter, I must admit that rugby league has just as much right to hold a world cup as Union. For that matter, The US has a right to call their baseball final “the world series” (is there anyone actually willing to claim that a team – not a national squad – based outside the US and Canada could win the series when it features the best baseball players from the entire world?).

Internationally league is tiny compared to union. Kazakstan has more union players than Ireland has league players. Sri Lanka (ranked 49th in the world) has more registered union players than there are league players in the entire world outside of Australia, PNG, NZ and England. But so what? Soccer has more players worldwide than the combined populations of the top 5 rugby union nations. As a union supporter I can live with that. It doesn’t mean that soccer is a superior sport just as it doesn’t mean that union is superior to league. Most people enjoy the sports they grow up with, and any competition including the best of any given sport has a right to claim itself as a ‘world cup/series/championship’.

If you had a sport with only two teams in the entire world, they could legitimately claim that any match played between them is a ‘world cup’.

What should legitimately be called a World Cup?

League

Remember the Melbourne C’wealth games – Leading up to the games there was concern at how slowly tickets were selling for all events – except the 7’s which sold out in ten minutes, and the netball which pretty much sold out in one day.

Rugby's Olympic chances fade again

Olympics

True Tah – Although the point of my article was just to point out how unrepresentative the IRB voting system is, I’m not averse to speculating about how the RWC should be held. The only thing stopping Scotland from hosting the RWC is money, and the enormous demands made by the RWC body. But hosting the event in Scotland (without sharing games all over Europe) might be just what the game needs in that country to put it back on track.

The whole idea behind RWC Pty Ltd (the company, not the event) is to raise funds for the development of the game in smaller rugby nations. They seem to miss the fact that the event itself could do more to promote the game in a small rugby nation than an enoromous pile of brand new balls, some boots and a couple of new scrum machines, but using the event in this way is impossible under the current guidelines used to select the host nation.

BLINK BILL – I know how you feel. I wrote a long letter to the IRB and a few national unions last year. Didn’t get a reply from the IRB although I did get a written reply from Scotland, NZ, the ARU, Canada and England.

If your looking for excellence in two wildly different events, it would be hard to ignore Walter Winans who competing as a shooter in 1908 won gold in the double-shot running deer event (and yes they used real deer), silver in the same event in 1912, and then won gold in the art events for his sculpture “An American Trotter”.

Phelps is the greatest Olympic swimmer, not the greatest Olympian

I noticed before Phelps was to attempt his 8th gold medal there was quite a few comments among Australian commentators and journalists, as well as from public comments posted on news websites, about how the Australian relay team would thwart his “dream of winning 8 gold meddals”. At one point the Australian teams comments seemed to imply their prime motivation for winning wasn’t representing their country but beating another country.

I remember one comment about Phelps claiming he was just a “typical loud-mouth, arrogant, self-centred ego-driven American”. I have to say that comment says more about the “typical” Australian who said it than the average American. I’ve yet to hear a Phelps interview where he even comes close to the arrogance shown by some Australian commentators. As an Australian who has visited The US and Europe on many occasions. The ‘welcome’ shown by Australians towards visitors from the US, UK, Japan, China doesn’t even come close to the warmth I’ve received on every trip I’ve made overseas. Now when I meet a visitor to Australia I give them a warm welcome – in spite of the constant recommendations of the Kochie and Channel 7 crowd.

Channel 7 are missing the real Olympic games

My 1st problem with the olympics – No rugby
2nd problem – way too much taxpayers money being wasted.
3rd problem – No rugby (One of the founding sports of the modern olympics I might add)

During the Athens games I did some calculations based on the budget figures and realised a few interesting facts:

It cost every single taxpayer an average of $40 to send our team.

For every dollar of taxpayers money actually spent on promoting sports in this country (providing facilities & equipment, upgrading grounds, funding coaches and officials, investing in kids sporting programs, etc) four dollars goes to fund a bunch of elitist wankers trotting over to the games to participate in sports virtually no-one in this country takes part in or gives a rat’s arse about at any other time. And then when they’re millionaires none of the money is repayed. What about a hex debt?

Think of it this way – every time you see an Australian receiving a medal, just remember it represents a public swimming pool that wasn’t built or a sports ground that could’ve been contructed – and then tell me it was worth it. No wonder our kids are becoming couch potatoes.

The most disgraceful moment in Australian sports was during the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth games when an overly jingoistic journalist poked fun at a Canadian swimming coach after we had thrashed them in the pool. When he was then asked if he felt totally humiliated he replied that he wasn’t, when he considered that the funding given to the Australian swimming team was seven times the funding given by every other country in the commmonwealth for every sport combined. We aren’t respected as a sporting nation anymore, we’re merely considered the new East Germany.

Three cheers for us – I’ll be changing channels.

The Beijing Olympics: wake me when it's over

I’ll go out on a limb here and say I’d put pretty much anybody in at fullback, even a 60 year-old Stan Pilecki, if it meant Ratu Nasiganiyavi could be put on the wing for Saturday. I know he hasn’t played for NSW yet but neither had Phil Kearns.

What Deans will do, eventually

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